Bill on the Equality of Nations and the Safeguarding of the Rights of National Minorities[1]

Written:Written after May 6 (19), 1914Published:First published in 1937 inLenin Miscellany XXX.

      Published according to the manuscript.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1972,

      Moscow,Volume 20,

      pages281-283.Translated:Bernard Isaacs and The Late Joe FinebergTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

1.Theboundaries of Russia’s administrative divisions, rural and urban
(villages, volosts, uyezds, gubernias, parts and sections of towns,
suburbs, etc.), shall be re vised on the basis of a register of present-day
economic conditions and the national composition of the population.

2.Thisregister shall be made by commissions elected by the local population
on the basis of universal, direct and equal suffrage by secret ballot with
proportional representation; national minorities too small (under
proportional representation) to elect one commission member shall elect a
commission member with a consultative voice.

3.Thenew boundaries shall be endorsed by the central parliament of the
country.

4.Localself-government shall be introduced in all areas of the country
without exception, on the basis of universal, direct and equal suffrage by
secret ballot with proportional representation; areas with specific
geographical, living or economic conditions or a special national
composition of the population shall have the right to form autonomous
regions with autonomous regional Diets.

5.Thelimits of jurisdiction exercised by the autonomous Diets and local
self-governing bodies shall be determined by the central parliament of the
country.

6.Allnations in the state are absolutely equal, and all privileges enjoyed
by any one nation or any one language are held to be inadmissible and
anti-constitutional.

7.Thelocal self-governing bodies and autonomous Diets shall determine the
language in which business is to be conducted by state and public
establishments in a given area or region, all national minorities having
the right to demand absolute safeguards for their language on the basis of
the principle of equality, for example, the right to receive replies from
state and public establishments in the language in which they are
addressed, etc. Measures by Zemstvos, towns, etc., which infringe the
equality of languages enjoyed by the national minorities in financial,
administrative, legal and all other fields, shall be considered non-valid
and subject to repeal on a protest filed by any citizen of the state,
regardless of domicile.

8.Eachself-governing unit of the state, rural and urban, shall elect, on the
basis of universal, direct and equal suffrage by secret ballot with
proportional representation, boards of education to take care, wholly and
autonomously, of expenditures on all the cultural and educational needs of
the population subject to the control and management of the town and
Zemstvo bodies.

9.Interritorial units with a mixed population the number of members on the
boards of education shall not be less than twenty. This number (20) may be
increased by order of the self-governing bodies and autonomous Diets. Areas
shall be considered as having a mixed population where a national minority
constitutes up to five per cent of the population.

10.Everynational minority of a given self-governing unit that is too small to
elect, under proportional representation, one member of the board of
education shall be entitled to elect a member with a consultative voice.

11.Theproportional share of the funds expended on the cultural and
educational needs of the national minorities in a given area shall not be
less than the proportional share of the national minorities in the whole
population of the given area.

12.Acensus of the population, with due account of the native language of
citizens, shall be carried out every ten years throughout the state, and
every five years in regions and areas with a mixed population.

13.Allmeasures by boards of education which in any way infringe the complete
equality of nations and languages of the local population or the
proportionality of expenditures on cultural and educational needs in
conformity with the share of the national minorities in the population,
shall be considered non-valid and subject to repeal on a protest of any
citizen of the state, regardless of domicile.

[1]Billon the Equality of Nations and the Safeguarding of the Rights
of National Minoritieswas drafted by Lenin for introduction to the
Fourth Duma by the Bolshevik group.

Theplan of the Bill was outlined in a letter to S. 0. Shahumyan, dated
May 6 (19), 1914, from Lenin who attached special importance to the
introduction of this Bill in the Duma. “In this way”, he wrote, “I
believe we can popularly explain the stupidity of cultural-national
autonomy andcrushthe votaries of this folly once for all.”

TheBill was not introduced.